1. Field of the invention.
The present invention relates to a catheter, such as a pigtail catheter widely used today by angiographers for inserting into the ventricle for the treatment of patients with aortic stenosis. They are easy to place, minimize intimal trauma and have improved stability. However, even with a standard pigtail catheter, kinking of the tubular distal end of the catheter, especially kinking of the performed curved pigtail, is often incurred during useage. The catheter of the present invention avoids kinking by the provision of inclined side holes punched into the tubular distal end of the catheter.
2. Description of the Related Art.
The standard pigtail catheters used nowadays, have up to twelve elliptical side holes in the distal end of the tubular body of the catheter. The elliptical side holes are located within the tubular body as close as possible to the performed curved pigtail. The side holes are arranged in three sets of four side holes, whereby the four side holes are equally distributed on the perimeter and the three sets of side holes are located next to each other. All elliptical side holes are arranged co-axial to the longitudinal axis of the catheter. This arrangement allows rapid injections of contrast media into the ventricle with minimal myocardial irritation.
As described more specifically hereinafter, the present invention differs significantly from the standard pigtail catheter by the provision of inclined side holes in the catheter wall.